Littlerock Pearblossom, CA

Along this part of the 138, the San Gabriel foothills crowd up close to the valley floor, and the Los Angeles County communities the map calls Littlerock and Pearblossom sit right beneath them. The area has no town of its own, just the stretch of farm parcels, homes and open ground that links two small highway towns. Houses and mobile homes sit far apart on large lots, often with a stand of fruit trees, a few rows of vines or a horse pen out back, and plenty of land in between has gone back to saltbush. A new house on one parcel and a weathered one on the next is typical. Outdoors, Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area is the local landmark, a county park with a nature center, picnic tables and trails that drop into the rock formations. Driving the 138 east also takes you past the stone chimneys of the Llano del Rio colony, a reminder of how long people have tried to make a go of this desert. Weekends bring visitors to Golden Star Vineyards, the estate winery on 106th Street East whose tasting room opens Saturday and Sunday afternoons. For books, the county library in Littlerock is the nearest, and most meals out happen in Littlerock's cluster of highway restaurants. The flip side of all the room between Littlerock and Pearblossom is that nothing sits within walking distance. Out on these parcels the mountains fill one window and a neighbor's orchard fills the other.